UAntwerpen, Stadscampus, Het Brantijser, SJ021
Tuesday 21 April 2026, 12.30-14.00
During this PoHis seminar, Teresa Petrik will present her research project Politics of poverty in (post-)military lives: invalids, soldiers’ wives and military children in 18th-century Habsburg Austria (1680–1790).
Teresa Petrik is a doctoral researcher in the project “The making of in/valids in the Habsburg monarchy”, led by Julia Heinemann at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and PhD student at the University of Vienna and the University of Antwerp. Her research interests include the history of poverty, dis/ability, punishment and the military in the early modern Habsburg monarchy.
Abstract:
While poverty and the military had been intertwined throughout the early modern period, in the 18th century, the Habsburg introduced forms of military welfare, aimed specifically at persons with an affiliation to the military, for the first time. As invalid soldiers, soldiers’ wives and widows, as well as their children were increasingly seen as subjects of welfare, but also potential workers for the state, the question who ‘belonged’ to the military gained importance within social processes of categorisation. In my presentation, I map out these ‘politics of poverty’ – that is, how constructions of ‘worthiness’ were discussed, applied and negotiated between different actors –and explore where military and non-military practices of poor relief interacted.